Chapter 672 - Tempest (VII) (Patreon)

After Rayce's little performance, the strange oddities that seemed drawn to us stopped, well, being drawn to us. Though the waters remained hectic, with waters rising up like dragons and clashing, splashing water every which way, there was little else besides that happening. Sure, an occasional monster would spray out from underneath us, soak us, and then swim away, and occasionally the storm would surge back up as lightning cracked against the lake's surface, but it was, generally speaking, a somewhat smooth ride.

Either the man had given up on testing us, or was working up to some final plan where he was going to imprison us or something. I'd hoped not, but knowing just how paranoid he was... yeah.

Regardless of my fears and hopes, the days began to merge together. One after another they flowed, and I found myself increasingly... bored. While the kids (and even Shufen and Lao Shun) cultivated and meditated, I was still not cast out of that mold. Best I could do was think about the Dao of Space and try my hardest to reach Create Void phase of the realm.

It's strange because I honestly thought I'd already reached it--I can create small spatial pockets that do last longer than a 'breath' of time (which I, functionally, consider to be about a second long), but no matter how many I create, the system never confirms the breakthrough, nor do I 'feel' one within me.

Even now, they're popping around relentlessly around my ears, but what's strange is that... nobody else seems to notice. And I've been paying attention, to say the least. Was it that I was actually super talented in the Dao of Space?

... nope. There's a much simpler and clearer answer: the spatial pockets I'm creating are so small and with such minimal impact on the world that they don't even register with others. And, hence, they aren't good enough for the system to recognize and acknowledge them, letting them ascend into the next phase of the realm.

Aah. I'll get there eventually.

Nearly a week passed by in the blink of an eye and the old man informed us that we were about halfway there. I was a bit surprised, actually, as I fully expected the journey in this rickety thing to take at least a month, but it's comforting to know we'll reach the island soon enough.

"We'll land on the western shores of the Southern Song," the old man sat next to me and uncorked a bottle of strange liquid, having already set sails and let the wind propel us forward since the waves themselves were quite mild. "Though most others ordinarily dock in either Myriad Song Port, second largest city, or the small docking bay called Mist-Anchor Wharf, I do not have a permit. As such, I land west of the Gold City, past the peaking mountains."

"That's alright," I said. "But why don't you have a permit? Because your boat looks older than some mountains?"

"No," he said. "Because it is older than some mountains."

"A durable thing, though. Perhaps you should take some of those folk who issue permits and ferry them over. They might be convinced."

"Ah, great immortal, few men and women of your stature are as open-minded," he said, glancing at me with a wry smile. "Most would sooner set themselves ablaze than be associated with mortal vermin like me."

"..."

"But it's fine," he took a swing of what I assume is some kind of booze. "I'm not long for this world, regardless. My hope is to one day die on these here waters."

"Mortal or immortal," I said. "We all seek the perfect death, I suppose."

"Oh? Immortals seek death?" he asked, eyebrows rising. "That's the first I heard of it."

"Hmm. Seek might be the wrong word," I said. "But all that lives inevitably dies, does it not?" I looked over at him. "And so, if I must die, I'd rather die a death that harkens to how I lived."

"And how is that?"

"Surrounded by my kids," I said. "Making bad jokes unto my last breath as they bawl their eyes out."

"... peculiar."

"Really? I'm sure they're all thinking I'm insane."

"I wouldn't dare say that."

"But you dare think it?"

"... of course not."

"Ha ha," alright, the old man's kind of fun. I'd almost feel bad about having to kill him if I could afford to feel bad about it. People are multitudes, I've learned a long time ago; even the most evil, ordinarily, have parts of them that are human. Ultimately, though, does it even matter? I could rationalize that I'll kill him because he's an evil person, but that'd just be the old hypocrite in me.

Besides, judging by the quantity of quests that are asking me to kill a whole heap of evil people, if I set out on that path, I'd be doing nothing else until that proverbial and literal death of mine.

"Forgive me for saying it, but you are strange," he added. "I'd ferried a few immortals in my many years of living, and none spoke to me ever once we boarded the boat. I was a tool making the boat move, and that was all."

"Maybe they were holding on for their dear lives, what with this old thing looking like it had been retrieved from the bottom of the lake, resurrected to serve its purpose once more."

"Indeed, maybe," he cracked a smile, finishing off whatever was in the bottle and hurtling it over the edge of the boat and into the water, standing up. "But I guarantee the boat has never sank... entirely."

"Huh."

The second week of the journey was... boring. Oh my god, it was so boring. Nothing happened. There were no waves, there were no monsters, no storms, no lightning strikes. There were no conversations, either, since the old man just sailed and slept, and the kids cultivated, probably sharpening themselves up for the island. There was nothing to do for a full week but pretend like I was in some deep thought when, for 90% of the time, I was most definitely not.

I mean, something has become fundamentally wrong with me. It wasn't too long ago that I would have cherished a week like this with my entire being. I mean, full seven days where nobody tried to kill us, or rob us, or fight us, and where nobody died, or was hurt, or impaled, and absolutely nothing of note happened? It would have been the perfect week! Like a gift from Dao itself!

And yet, here I am, bored by it.

The world has changed me, and it has changed me a great deal. Maybe some parts of my past neurotic self remain and crawl out of hiding every once in a while, but looking over my life here... it snuck up on me like a shadowy ghost, the changes. Who knows? If I changed this much in just the last few years, what the hell will I become in a hundred? Won't it be the case of Theseus ship, where parts of me will have been replaced so much that I will have become a completely different person?

... no, wait, that's not how that story goes, I'm pretty sure.

Speaking of ships, there were none in the distance as the edge of the island emerged past the mist--to both right and left there were sheer cliffs, tall and jagged and rough, and between them was a short stretch of sandy beach. It was, at most, two to three miles long, and just about a hundred yards deep, but it was shorn of life fully as we approached. No people, no ships, no animals. Just sand and dirt, blending into stone and rock.

At long last, we've reached it.

Nirvana Frontier Island.

End of Volume VI

A bit of an awkward ending to the volume, but as I did some retooling of the arcs some time back (namely, the whole auction arc was actually supposed to be just some 10 quick chapters when I first sketched out the outline of the volume, but after coming back to it, I decided to expand it into a proper arc & thus create a bit of an awkward shift to where I should end the volume), it was either ending it here or having it run longer than any other volume by probably twice or thrice the length. It's 142 chapters long, which isn't terribly short, but somewhat shorter than I initially sketched out. Anyway, as always, it's mostly just for internal keeping as 7th volume will continue directly from this chapter, so no changes for you guys ^^ I'll eventually drop the map of the island as geography will play a part in the story (probably 2 variants: more colorful/AI-enhanced one vs a relatively simple/functional one), but it shouldn't be an issue just yet.